High Court to Consider Undivided Mortgage Fees

(CN) – Quicken Loans must defend the “unearned, undivided” fees it charges borrowers at the closing of a mortgage transaction, with the U.S. Supreme Court agreeing Tuesday to take up the case. Tammy Foret Freeman is the lead plaintiff in the case, a consolidation of lawsuits filed by three couples who took out mortgages with Quicken in 2007. They also sued Title Source. A Louisiana federal judge had thrown the consolidated lawsuit out on summary judgment, and a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit affirmed last year. The New Orleans-based court said Quicken’s charges were permissible and noted it would have had to split the challenged fee with another party to have violated the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.